Download Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real

Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms
Presented by Amy Benjamin
Part One: Seeing Grammar with New Eyes
Part Two: Teaching the Parts of Speech
Staff Development Workshops Part Three: Grammar for Construction
Lunch
Part Four: Complete Sentence Recognition
Part Five: Grammar for Correction
Part Six: Switching the Code from Informal
to Formal
“ I’ve never known a person
who wasn’t interested in language.”
-Steven Pinker, The Language
Instinct
Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms
Morning:
I. About seeing grammar with new eyes
I.
Teaching the parts of speech through
visuals and manipulatives;
using morphology charts to unite grammar
instruction with literature/writing/vocabulary
III. Grammar for construction: 8 powerful,
teachable sentence techniques to improve
student writing and thinking
Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms
Afternoon:
I. Multiple ways to teach students how to
recognize complete sentences and clausal
boundaries
II.
Accessible guidelines for clear and accurate
writing
III. Creating foldables for sentence construction
and common homonym use
IV. Creating a classroom visual for code-switching
between informal and formal language register
I
teaching grammar.
I never “really” learned it.
Shouldn’t they already
have had this in the
lower grades?
Do kids really have to learn
all these terms?
I loved it! I thought
diagramming sentences
was fun!
There’s no interesting
way to teach grammar.
It’s just drill and workbook.
Grammar
“takes away”
from the
study of
literature.
M
Students struggle with going from speech
to writing, and then from informal
to formal style.
Seeing Grammar With Old Eyes
For error correction
only
No acknowledgement
of language variation or language change
Drills and exercises with contrived
language
Seeing Grammar With New
Eyes
•Respect for language
variation and change:
•Developing a “language of the language”
to allow communication between teachers
and students
Seeing Grammar With New
Eyes
•Learning to be in
control of the rhetorical
effects of grammatical
choices
•Understanding that the ability to copy the
patterns of a language (grammar) is
inborn, fascinating, and miraculous!
GRAMMAR IN THE HEART OF THE WRITING PROCESS:
8 Sentence-Crafting Techniques:
1. Prepositional phrase sentence
openers
2. Strong action verbs
3. Noun phrase appositives
4. Appositive adjective pairs
5. Choosing active or passive voice
6. Adverbial clauses
7. Semicolon in a compound sentence
8. Parallel structure
Pre-writing
experience:
(non-sentence
form)
Drafting
Revising
Editing
Point of
intervention for
substantial
language
improvement
Point of
intervention
for surface
error correction
Publication
I.
Cesar Chavez helped the farm workers.
He advocated for them. He did not
encourage violence. He led a boycott
instead of violence. The boycott was an
effective method of resistance. (30)
II.
Cesar Chavez helped the farm workers,
and he advocated for them. He did not
encourage violence. He led a boycott
instead of violence, and the boycott
was an effective method of resistance.
(32)
III.
Cesar Chavez, advocate for farm
workers, helped them not by
encouraging violence, but by leading
a boycott, an effective
method of resistance. (22)
Grammatical choices have
rhetorical effects.
It was the very witching time of night. Ichabod was heavy-hearted and
crestfallen. He pursued his travels homewards…
It was the very witching time of night when Ichabod, heavy-hearted and
crestfallen, pursued his travels homewards…
Techniques:
1. Adverbial clause: …when Ichabod….
2. Post-noun adjective pair: Ichabod, heavy-hearted and
crestfallen, ….
“The Legend of Sleep Hollow” by Washington Irving
There was Craig, the basketball-star brother, tall and friendly
and courteous and funny, working as an investment banker
but dreaming of going into coaching someday.
Techniques:
1. Appositive: Craig, the basketball-star brother,
2. Loose sentence: Subject-verb established upfront, followed
by well-developed modifier structures (including four postnoun adjectives)
3. Polysyndeton (“and” between modifiers to emphasize each
one)
4. Parallel structure: working…but dreaming…
5. Verbals: working, dreaming, going
Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope
Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms
Presented by Amy Benjamin
Staff Development Workshops
Part Two:
Teaching the Parts of Speech
Reading Rods® Sentence-Construction Kit
Sentence-Construction Individual Student Kit
156 rods, Activity Flipbook, 36-page Instructional Guide.
00
Item #
Description
Units
Price
INP60016
Reading Rods Sentence-Construction: Individual Kit
Each
$38.95
http://www.etacuisenaire.com/catalog/
Qty
We showed we know that:
A sentence needs a subject and a verb, and maybe an object.,
A noun may be modified by an adjective, which is probably in the
pre-noun position.
A verb, adjective, or other adverb may be modified by an adverb, which
may be movable within the sentence.
A conjunction may be used to join elements within a sentence or even to
join whole sentences.
A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition plus an object, which is
A noun or pronoun., A prepositional phrase may function adverbially or
adjectivally.
A pronoun replaces a noun + its modifiers
Grammar Lessons with Reading Rods:
Concept:
Procedure:
Students build declarative sentences. You then direct
them to do the following:
1. A sentence is a two-part
structure requiring subject-verb
agreement.
Hold the subject (Who or what is the sentence about?) in one hand;
the predicate (What about it?) in the other. Ask students to pass their
“subject” blocks to another group. When students sense that the
newly-formed sentences don’t always “go together,” you have the
opportunity to explain what we mean by subject-verb agreement.
Have students explain what they would have to do to achieve subjectverb agreement with the newly-formed sentences.
2, A sentence can be stripped down to
its subject-verb core and then built up
with modifiers.
Have students create a green-yellow “sentence core.” Add modifiiers
(adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases). Point out that some
modifiers precede the nouns and verbs that they modify; others follow
them. Have students experiment with the movability of modifiers and
the punctuation obligations that result from moving modifiers around in
the sentence. (See Lesson 5)
3. Parts of speech have certain
properties and forms.
Have students group the Reading Rods by color. Ask them to (use
inductive reasoning) to draw conclusions about what each class of
words has in common. Consider the endings that various word
classes can accept. Then, use the Owner’s Manuals to get a fuller
picture of the properties of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.
4. In English, it is common for nouns,
verbs, and adjectives to perform each
other’s functions. (functional shifting)
Have students use one part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb)
as another. Name this capability as a functional shift.
5. A noun phrase may be expanded by
adding modifiers to either side of it.
The noun being expanded is called the
headword.
Have students use modifiers (adjectives, prepositional phrases) to
expand their noun phrases. This is the opportunity to teach whether or
not a comma is necessary between adjectives: If the adjectives don’t
usually go together, then we do need a comma to separate them. A
variation of this guideline is that if the adjectives can easily be
reversed, then we do need a comma. Another variation is that if “and”
can come between the adjectives, then we do need a comma.
10 Grammar Lessons with Reading Rods:
Concept:
Procedure:
6.A pronoun takes the place of a noun
and its modifiers (not just the noun).
Although it is commonly taught that a pronoun “takes the place of a
noun,” the fact is that the pronoun takes the place of the noun + its
modifiers (noun phrase). To illustrate this concept, have students try
replacing the noun only with a pronoun. They will immediately see that
the true function of a pronoun is to replace the noun + its modifiers, not
just the noun.
7. Adverbs are often movable within the
sentence.
As students experiment with how the sentence changes when the
adverbs are moved around, use the teachable moment for a lesson in
punctuation: We use a comma (or a pair of commas around the adverb
that has been moved) to signal an inversion.
8. A compound sentence is formed by
combining two independent clause with
a comma and a coordinating
conjunction.
Have students join two independent clauses with a coordinating
conjunction. This is the opportunity to teach that unless the independent
clauses of a compound sentence are very short, we use both a comma
and a coordinating conjunction to form a compound sentence.( A
semicolon may also be used to create a compound sentence.)
(Suggestion: Using purple paper, create several more blocks with
conjunctions.)
9. Clauses are either independent or
dependent. Dependent clauses are
created with subordinating conjunctions.
Have students create independent clauses (aka complete sentences)
and add subordinating conjunctions (as, after, although, while, when,
until, unless, because, before, if, since) to develop an understanding of
how complex sentences are formed and punctuated.
10. A complex sentence consists of a
dependent and independent clause,
either of which may come first in the
sentence. If the dependent clause
comes first, then a comma is required
after it.
See above.
A 5-Day Sequence for Sentence Building with Reading Rods
Day One: Create your sentence and write it down.
Day Two : Divide the subject and the predicate.
Experiment with new subjects and new predicates.
Day Three : Expand your noun phrases.
Day Four: Expand your verb phrase.,
Day Five: Experiment with conjunctions.
Two Categories of Words in English
Form Class Words:
Structure Class Words:
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Determiners (aka
articles: a, an, the)
Intensifers
Pronouns
Interjections
Jabbowocky
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy was the borogrove
And the womrath outgrabe.
Noun: Owner’s Manual
Congratulations on your wise purchase of a NOUN. Your NOUN may be
used to fit into the following frame:
The____________.
Your NOUN is used to name people, places, things, ideas, qualities, states of
mind, and all kinds of other things that need naming.
Your NOUN may be easily converted into an adjective. All you have to do is put
another NOUN after it and have it make sense. (COW pasture, for
example).
Your NOUN may be the kind of NOUN that can be made plural. Only NOUNS
may be made plural.
Your NOUN may be able to be made possessive by adding ‘s. Only NOUNS
may be made possessive. When you make your NOUN possessive, it
becomes an adjective.
You may add all kinds of modifiers before and after your NOUN. You may
replace your NOUN along with its modifiers with a pronoun.
Feel free to use your NOUN as a subject, direct object, indirect object, object
complement, object of a preposition, appositive, or predicate noun
Your noun may be called a nominal when we consider it together with its modifiers.
Adjective: Owner’s Manual
Congratulations on your wise purchase of an ADJECTIVE. Your ADJECTIVE may
be used to fit into the following frame:
The______________truck. Or The truck was very_________.
Your ADJECTIVE likes to answer the question What kind?
If your ADJECTIVE doesn’t fit into either of these frames, maybe it is the kind of
ADJECTIVE that answers the questions Which one? or How many?
Your ADJECTIVE may be capable of using the suffixes –er in the comparative form
and –est in the superlative form. (If your ADJECTIVE doesn’t like these suffixes,
just use more and most to accomplish comparison or superiority.)
Your ADJECTIVE reports to your NOUN, and your NOUN can easily become an
ADJECTIVE to another NOUN.
Often, groups of words decide to get together and do ADJECTIVE-like work. We
call such groups of words ADJECTIVALS, and they may be phrases or clauses
that operate just like ADJECTIVES, answering those questions that
ADJECTIVES answer.
Verb: Owner’s Manual
Congratulations on your wise purchase of a VERB. Your VERB may be used to fit into the
following frame:
To______________.
Your VERB is the part of the sentence that is capable of turning the sentence into a
negative. It is also the part of the sentence that changes when you add yesterday or
right now. (If your sentence does not change when you add yesterday to it, then your
sentence is in the past tense. If your sentence does not change when you add right
now to it, then it is in the present tense.)
Your VERB may be an action verb or a linking verb. Action verbs may take direct objects
and are modified by adverbs. Linking verbs take predicate nouns and predicate
adjectives. You can easily find a list of linking verbs.
Your VERB may take auxiliaries (forms of have, be) and modal auxiliaries (could, should,
would, can, will, shall, may, might, must).
Your VERB sometimes uses a form of the word do to create a sentence, to emphasize, to
negate, or to stand in for itself, as in: Do you think so? Yes, I do.
Adverb: Owner’s Manual
Congratulations on your wise purchase of an ADVERB. Your ADVERB is very
useful for answering one of the following questions:
When?
Where?
Why?
How often?
To what extent?
In what manner?
Often, groups of words decide to get together to do ADVERB-like work, and
when they do, we call these groups of words ADVERBIALS. ADVERBIALS
may be phrases or clauses that answer the questions that ADVERBS
answer..
Morphology Chart
NOUNS:
VERBS:
ADJECTIVES:
ADVERBS:
They will fit into the frame:
The_____.
They will fit into the
frame:
Can______
(or) Can be_______
They answer one of these
questions:
Which one?
What kind?
How many?
They answer one of these
questions:
Where? When? Why?
To what extent? How
often?
In what manner?
Regular verbs have
four forms:
Base form; -s form; -ed form;
-ing form
Although most verbs in their
-ed and –ing forms can be used
as adjectives, you don’t have to
repeat the forms in this column.
The adjectives that will be in this
chart will answer, “What kind?”
The adverbs that will be in this
chart will answer, “In what
manner?”
It’s easier to teach parts of speech than you think. Simply use the cues above. Use the morphology chart
to illustrate how a word can change its forms, adapting itself to more than one part of speech. Not all words
follow the same morphology. It’s interesting to see how words morph into different forms. The morphology
chart is great for grammar lessons, vocabulary expansion, and spelling. See www.amybenjamin.com for
blank and sample morphology charts.
Six Reasons for Teaching
Prepositions:
1. Prepositions add time and place detail to sentences
2. Students can vary their sentence structure and set the stage for
a sentence by beginning some sentences with prepositions.
3. Students can add power to their writing by ending paragraphs with a
prepositional phrase. (Conversely: Students can avoid ending sentences
with prepositions so that their sentences are not weak or too informal.)
4. Students can avoid subject-verb agreement errors by recognizing
prepositional phrases that intervene between the subject and the verb, as in
“A box of matches (is, are) on the kitchen table.”
5. Students can create parallel structure by repeating prepositional phrases
deliberately.
6. Students can select the appropriate pronoun case as the object of
a preposition. (between you and me; for Joe and me)
Adjective Structures
Which one?
What kind?
How many?
Adverb structures:
Where?
When?
Why?
In what manner?
How often?
BASIC
How to use the ACTION FLASH CARDS to expand sentence skills:
Have students express what is happening in the action flash card using
various sentence forms:
Step One: Explain what is happening in your action flash card.
Step Two: Now, experiment with many different ways to write your sentence:
Ex: Begin with There is/ There are____________.
Don’t begin with the or a.
Write a yes/no question.
Write a Who? or What? or When? or Where? or Why? question.
Write a sentence that has an -ING word.
Write a sentence that does not use IS or ARE or WAS or WERE.
Write a sentence that uses BECAUSE in the middle. Reverse that
sentence to have BECAUSE as the first word.
Write a sentence that use SO in the middle.
Write a sentence that needs two commas.
Write a sentence that has at least three phrases (word groups that
don’t form a whole sentence by themselves).
Write a sentence that has a compound subject.
Write a sentence that has a compound verb.
Common Hitching Devices
Coordinating
Conjunctiions
Subordinating
Conjunctions
And
But
So
Or/nor
As, although, after
While, when
Until
Because, before
If
Conjunctive Adverbs
However
Moreover
Therefore
Furthermore
AAAWWUBBI
Can join two
independent
clauses to make
a compound
sentence.
Warning: You
must use a comma
with these when
they join
independent clauses.
Can hitch up to an
independent clause,
creating a subordinate
(dependent) clause,
forming
complex sentence.
Can appear after
main clause (no comma)
or before main clause
(needs a comma)
Relative Pronouns
That
Which
Who, whom
What
Where
Why
How
Whichever
Whatever, etc.
Can move within
own clause;
Requires commas
on both sides
Warning: If you
wish to use these
to join clauses, you
must use a semicolon.
Can join clauses
Warning: Many
sentence fragments
begin with these
words. Usually, you
must hitch these
words and the clauses
that they introduce to
your previous sentence.
Sentence Patterns
S-V*
S-V-O*
S-V-C
Rocks explode.
Lizards like rocks.
Rocks are expensive.
A diamond is a rock.
*SV: Subject-Verb: This pattern uses an intransitive verb. Intransitive verbs take
no direct object.
*S-V-O: Subject-Verb-Object: This pattern uses a transitive verb. Transitive verbs
take direct objects. (Direct objects answer Who? Or What? They are used with
action verbs only.
*S-V-C: Subject-Verb-Complement: This pattern uses a linking verb.
Linking verbs take subject complements, which can be either nouns (and when
pronouns, are in the subjective case) or adjectives.
Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms
Presented by Amy Benjamin
Staff Development Workshops
Grammar for Construction
“ I’ve never known a person
who wasn’t interested in language.”
-Steven Pinker, The Language
Instinct
Grammar and the Gertie Ball™
“Grammar and the Gertie Ball™” gets you going on rhetorical grammar, the kind of thinking about
sentence structure that allows us to make informed choices about how we craft sentences.
“Grammar and the Gertie Ball™” is played only when the students have their rough drafts in hand.
The idea is to have the students toss the ball to determine which of the eight sentence-crafting
techniques to put into play on one of the sentences in their drafts.
The 8 Sentence-Crafting Techniques:
1. Prepositional phrase sentence
To set up Grammar and the Gertie Ball™, use a
openers
permanent marker to write the techniques, one in
2. Strong action verbs
each of the sections delineated on the ball.
3. Noun phrase appositives
4. Appositive adjective pairs
In the beginning stages, have one student toss the
5. Choosing active or passive voice
ball on behalf of the class to determine the technique
6. Adverbial clauses
to be practiced.
7. Semicolon in a compound sentence
8. Parallel structure
You will then deliver a brief lesson on the designated
technique. Students are expected to demonstrate knowledge
of the technique by transforming at least one of the sentences
in their draft. They need to hi-light this sentence on their
final draft.
Full guidelines for each of these skills
are available free of charge on
Eventually, students will be able to work in groups to
www.amybenjamin.com. Go to
accomplish their revisions.
“recent presentations” and “grammar.”
Presented by Amy Benjamin. www.amybenjamin.com
Prepositional Phrase Sentence
Openers
Purpose: When you teach students to use prepositional phrases to begin some of their sentences, you’ve
taught them two important skills in the sentence-crafting:
1. Varying sentence structure
Most novices begin sentence after sentence with the subject word.
This gives their style a blunt, plodding rhythm. By beginning some
sentences with prepositional phrases, the writer achieves a softer,
more professional variety in sentence rhythms.
2. Setting the stage for the action of the sentence
Prepositional phrases often give information about time and place.
So by beginning sentences with prepositional phrases, we set the
reader up with a visual that clarifies the sentence.
Mini-Lesson on prepositions and prepositional phrases: You can easily teach prepositional phrases via
the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Any word that can replace “over” is likely to be a
preposition. To teach what we mean by the term “object of a preposition,” replace the word
“rainbow” with any other word.
Variation: Start with the sentence: “Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s
house we go.” Substitute other words for “over” and “through” and you’ll generate a list
of prepositions that show placement.
Remember: Not all prepositions give information about placement. Some (“At night,” “after lunch”) give
information about time. The word “of” is also a preposition, although sentences beginning it
are rare.)
Build awareness of the concept by looking for sentences in literature that open with prepositional phrases.
Strong Action Verbs
Purpose: Students often lack an awareness of the power of strong action verbs, as opposed to
linking verbs. When you get them to consciously employ strong action verbs instead
of overused verbs (have, get) or linking verbs, you enliven their language. The verb
acts as the engine of the sentence: teach students to install a strong, pepp
Mini-lesson: Teach that the verb is the word that changes when we transform the sentence from present
to past tense, or vice versa. Ask: When does the sentence happen? Does it happen now, or
did it happen yesterday?” This question will cue them in to the tensed verb of the sentence.
Another teaching technique is that if you make a positive sentence negative (or, a negative
sentence positive), you will find that the word “not” or “no” settles right in beside the verb.
The positive-negative test will help you locate the tensed verb.
Build awareness of the concept by finding sentences in literature that employ strong action verbs.
Noun Phrase Appositives
Purpose: Noun phrase appositives are nouns or noun phrases that sidle up right next to nouns that
they re-name, like this: “My mother, a famous opera singer, never eats garlic before a performance.”
When you teach your students to use noun phrase appositives, you teach them to enrich the meaning
of their key nouns. You also teach them to make their writing more concise since noun phrase appositives
are one way of combining sentences.
Mini-lesson: Define noun phrase appositives as “re-namers” and help students locate them in
authentic text. They are rather easy to find because they are set off by a pair of commas.
Because they are noun phrases, they are often introduced by an article (a, an, the).
Remember: Noun phrase appositives are set off by a pair of commas.
Appositive Adjective Pairs
Purpose: Appositve adjective pairs are two adjectives joined by “and” that appear immediately after
the noun or noun phrase that they modify. Appositive adjective pairs are set off by a pair
of commas.
Ex: Ichabod, heavy-hearted and crestfallen, pursued his travels homeward.
When you teach your students to use appositive adjective pairs, you’ve taught them to
write in an elevated, poetic style that emphasizes adjectives by placing them in the
post-noun, rather than the usual pre-noun, position.
Mini-lesson: Help students understand what an adjective is by telling them that an adjective is
a word that you can put “more” or “most” in front of. (For short adjectives, you can
add –er and –est endings.) Another way is to tell them that an adjective is a word
that will fit into this frame: “The ____________ truck.” Show students how adjectives,
when they are doing the average, expected job, appear before the noun as in
“The red truck.” We can also use an adjective after a form of the verb TO BE, as in
“The truck IS red.” However, if we want the adjective to receive special attention, we
can pair it up with another adjective and place it on the OTHER side of the noun that
it modifies, setting it off with a pair of commas.
Build awareness of the concept by looking for post-noun adjectives in literature, which often employs
post-noun adjective pairs, as in the example above, from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
Choosing Active or Passive Voice
Purpose: Good writers make deliberate decisions about when to use active voice and when to
use passive voice. Novice writers tend to overuse passive voice. You can tell that a
sentence is in passive voice because there is no agent doing the action.
Ex: Active voice: The first baseman threw the ball to second.
Passive voice: The ball was thrown to second. OR
The ball was thrown to second by the first baseman.
When you teach students to recognize passive voice and question whether the sentence
would be better in active voice, you are teaching them a critical thinking and language
management skill that will make them more effective communicators.
Mini-lesson: Have students transform messages from active to passive voice and vice versa. Have them
evaluate which form is more effective for the purpose and audience. You will find good
examples of sentences written in active voice in sports writing. You will find good examples
of sentences written in passive voice in math writing (“The numerator is divided by the
denominator.”) and often in businesslike writing (“Shoes and shirts are required.”)
Every sentence is written in either active or passive voice. Build awareness of voice when reading
authentic text. Get students accustomed to switching from one to the other and evaluating the
effect that either active or passive voice has upon the reader.
Adverbial Clauses
Purpose: When you teach your students to include adverbial clauses in their sentences,
you are enabling them to create sentences that deliver information beyond the
basics. Adverbial clauses are clauses (subject + verb units) that answer any one
of the questions that adverbs answer: When? Where? Why? To what extent?
In what manner?
Mini-Lesson: Because adverbial clauses are introduced by subordinating conjunctions, you can
teach your students to include subordinating conjunctions in their sentences. The
most common subordinating conjunctions are as follows:
As, Although, After
When, While
Until, Unless
Because, Before
If
Since
Note that adverbial clauses create complex sentences.: A complex sentence is a sentence having
a main clause plus a subordinate clause. We can recognize the subordinate clause because it is the
clause that begins with one of the subordinating conjunctions above. When the main clause comes
first, we do not need a comma to separate the two clauses. However, when the clauses are reversed,
with the subordinate clause coming first, then we do need a comma after the subordinate clause.
Semicolon in a Compound
Sentence
Purpose: When you teach your students to use a semicolon to create a compound sentence, you
are teaching them to create parallel sentences. Ideally, a “semicolon sentence” signals
that there are two independent clauses that are similar in both meaning and structure:
they could each be separate, but they want to be together.,
Mini-lesson: Explain the relationship between the two independent clauses in a compound
sentence that is joined by a semicolon as a marriage: The semicolon is “licensed” to
create a “legal” tie between two independent entities (clauses) that have so much in
common that they wish to be united.
Build awareness of how semicolons work in compound sentences by noticing them in
authentic text. Editorials are great places in which to find semicolon sentences.
Encourage critical thinking by having students evaluate other choices that the writer
could have made to join or separate clauses. (Note: A semicolon can also be used to
separate items in a series when the items themselves contain commas.)
Parallel Structure
Purpose: When you teach students to write sentences containing parallel structure, you
are teaching them to expand their ideas and present them in a way that the reader
will find smooth and well-crafted. A sentence with parallel structure is “in tune” with
its own parts.
Mini-lesson: There are all kinds of parallel structure: adjective-noun phrases, participials,
correlative clauses, infinitives, etc. The key to finding parallel structure (for a novice)
is to look for the word and. When we find parallel structure, we need to name them
for the students so that the students can see why they are parallel.
Build awareness of parallel structure by finding examples of it in authentic text. Realize that
parallel structure can be subtle. Often, the more we examine well-written text, the more
instances of parallel structure we will find. Parallel structure can exist within single sentences.
But we can also find parallel structure in sentences that “live” within the same paragraph.
Oratory is the best kind of discourse in which to find parallel structure. Skillful speakers know that
parallel structure creates orderliness and memorability in their language. Find examples of
parallel structure in Presidential Inaugural addresses.
Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms
Presented by Amy Benjamin
Staff Development Workshops
Part Four:
Complete Sentence Recognition
“ I’ve never known a person
who wasn’t interested in language.”
-Steven Pinker, The Language
Instinct
Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone:
Here are three ways to test whether a group
of words forms a complete sentence.
(We are talking ONLY about DECLARATIVE
sentences.)
Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone:
Test One: The “Guess What!” test
How it works: Say “Guess What!” in front of
a group of words. If the group of words
tells you “guess what!” then
you have a complete sentence!
Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone:
Test Two: The “They believed that…” test
How it works: Say “They believed that…” in front of
a group of words. If the group of words
makes sense when you say “They believed that…”
in front of it, then you have a complete sentence!
Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone:
Test Three: The “Yes/No Question” test
How it works: Can you turn your group of words into
a question that can be answered with YES or NO?
If you can, then your group of words is a complete
sentence.
Why fragments?
Fragments are usually subordinate clauses that
need to be attached to the previous sentence.
Subordinate clauses often begin with:
Which, That, Who
Subordinate clauses often begin with:
Adjective clauses:
Tell you “which one?”
“what kind?”
Adverbial clauses:
Tell you “when?” “where?” “why?”
“how?” “to what extent?”
AAAWWUUBBI:
As, Although, After, When, While, Until, Unless, Because, Before, If
Phrase, Clause, Sentence
A phrase is two or more words that go
together (without being a sentence). There
are noun phrases and verb phrases. Once
we have both a noun and a verb, then
we have a clause.
A clause is a group of words that
may or may not be a complete
sentence. If a clause can be a
complete sentence, then we call it
an independent clause. (If a clause
cannot stand alone as a sentence,
then we call it a subordinate clause.
Why run-ons?
Run-ons result from the improper joining of independent
clauses.
When independent clauses are
joined by JUST a COMMA, we
call that kind of run-on a COMMA SPLICE.
To fix a comma splice,
just add and, but, so, or
a semicolon.
How do you know if you have a
run-on?
Try your favorite sentence test.
A clause is a group of words that
may or may not be a complete
sentence. If a clause can be a
complete sentence, then we call it
an independent clause.
Listen carefully for the point at which the
information in each independent clause ends.
The Sentence-Making Kit
Fold a 5 x 8 index card in half, width-wise:
Guess
What!
1.
They
believed
that…
2.
Yes/no
question
Stick-on
question
Bicycle:
Who or what?
What about it?
3.
4.
5.
The Sentence-Making Kit
On the inside of the card:
AAAWWUBBIS:
although, as, after
while, when
until
because, before
if, since
If a sentence begins
with any of these words,
it must have two parts.
Place a comma between
the two parts if one of
these words begins
the sentence.
These words, plus the comma, may join
,and two sentences. Writers sometimes begin
,but sentences with these words if they are
,so
doing so for emphasis.
Use as many
These words will help you
ACTION VERBS as possible.
give detail in your sentences:
Try beginning some of your
Use words and groups of words that
sentences with these words:
answer the ADVERB QUESTIONS:
IN
FOR
ON WITH
When? Where? Why? How?
AT
To what extent? How often?
Flip the switch into formal English:
a lot = a great many or a great deal
gonna= going to
wanna= want to
hafta= have to
get,got = become, became, receive
received, obtain, obtained
gotta: must
The Sentence-Making Kit
On the back of the card:
Substitutions for homophones and spelling problems:
their = his
there = here
they’re = they are
your = his
you’re = you are
its = his
it’s = it is; it has
I before E except after C
Or when sounded as A
As in neighbor or sleigh
woman = man
women = men
Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms
Presented by Amy Benjamin
Staff Development Workshops
Part Five:
Grammar for Correction
“ I’ve never known a person
who wasn’t interested in language.”
-Steven Pinker, The Language
Instinct
Homophones: The Substitution System
There
√Their
They’re
The substitution for THEIR is HIS:
Their
His house is next to our house..
The Wilsons keep
their dog inside a fence.
his
All students should be respectful to their
his bus drivers .
Homophones: The Substitution System
√There
Their
They’re
The substitution for THERE is HERE:
There
Here is a big truck parked outside our house.
Please put the candy over Here
there
We expected some friends to meet us Here
there at six o’clock.
Homophones: The Substitution System
There
Their
√They’re
The substitution for THEY’RE is THEY ARE:
They
They’re
are moving into the house next door..
are
I saw that They
they’re
Sometimes,
they’reare
They
training a new puppy.
not happy.
Homophones: The Substitution System
√Your
You’re
If you can substitute HIS, use YOUR:
Your
His mother is calling you on your cell phone.
Get to know the children in his
your
Introduce me to
ITS/IT’s works the same way.
YOUR: substitute HIS
class.
your
his friends.
Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms
Presented by Amy Benjamin
Staff Development Workshops
Part Six:
Switching the Code
from Informal to Formal
“ I’ve never known a person
who wasn’t interested in language.”
-Steven Pinker, The Language
Instinct
Informal and Formal English
Informal and formal English
got, gotta
hafta
gonna
have, have to
going to
want to
wanna
let me
lemme
would have, should have,
could have
woulda, shoulda,
coulda
because
cuz